The European Union has been likened to a "burning building" in a state of political crisis by Nigel Farage, who called on the British public to make a dash for the exit by voting No in the referendum.

The leader of Ukip said: "The more I look at the EU - we've a currency crisis tearing north and south apart, a migrant crisis leading to walls being built in Austria and Hungary - Schengen isn't working, nothing is working.

"It's in a permanent, perpetual crisis.

"The EU looks like a burning building but there's an exit door, and I suggest on June 23, we take it."

Speaking ahead of a speech to hundreds of supporters at Wolverhampton race course, Mr Farage also branded the renegotiation deal announced by the Prime Minister as a "Cam-Sham" which would change nothing.

He said: "There was going to be fundamental reform and change, big treaty changes - well, nothing like that has happened."

Mr Farage added: "It doesn't address the major issues that concern the British public which are; why can't we veto a bad law, why is it costing us over £50 million a day, and why do we have an open door to over 500 million people."

Mr Farage went on: " The European Parliament can water down or even veto the changes to migrant benefits and all the rest of it can be ruled out of court by the European Court of Justice.

"It's not a renegotiation, it's Cam-Sham."

Taking to the stage without notes for the Say No To The EU-branded event, he delivered a speech and answered questions from the floor for almost an hour.

Addressing his appearance on Friday alongside Respect Party leader George Galloway at the anti-EU Grassroots Out event in London, he said he would was happy to make common cause with politicians of any stripe so long as they backed leaving the European Union.

Earlier, he told reporters: "I would be diametrically opposed to George (Galloway) on a whole host of issues.

"Sometimes in life things come along that are bigger, more fundamental and more important than normal Left/Right divides in politics.

"This question of whether we're a self-governing nation, whether we're a democracy, whether we rule ourselves, make our own decisions in terms of our friends and trade partners in the world, transcends all traditional boundaries."

He criticised the "massive policy error in Europe" of allowing thousands of people from Syria and beyond into the EU, saying it would put UK security at risk.

Earlier this week, the head of the EU police agency Europol estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 EU citizens who had received terrorist training in the Middle East may have slipped back into Europe.

Mr Farage, referring to Europol director Rob Wainwright's comments, said: "I've been predicting this since April last year, in speech after speech in the European Parliament.

"The point I kept making is that when Isis say they will use the migrant crisis to flood our continent with people that wish us harm we probably ought to take them seriously.

"Of course I was called a scaremonger but now the boss of Europol tells us that up to 5,000 of these jihadist fighters are in Europe and I cannot think of a louder clarion call signal that says to the British people: ' vote to leave the EU, vote to get back control of our borders'.

"Because all these people who have gone to Germany and elsewhere will have EU passports within a few years - we need to protect our country."

In an interview with a German newspaper, Mr Wainwright said there was "no concrete evidence terrorists are systematically using of the flow of refugees to infiltrate Europe".